This 7-11 is situated as a stand-alone in the middle of a parking lot with a Brunswick Zone bowling near by, a Diamond Shamrock/Valero across that parking lot, and then a really run down mini-mall/shopping center with two or three liquor stores just around the corner. It's also right by a high school with an open campus (students can leave on their lunches or free periods or they just ditch, like me and my friends did) and a middle school with a closed campus.
The area around the school is really diverse. The high school (my old HS) has basically equal parts white kids, black kids, mexican kids, asian kids, russian kids and pretty much any ethnicity under the sun. There are OK houses and neighborhoods a few blocks from the school and 7-11 and really shitty apartments and condos much closer. From my house it's not unusual to hear gunshots if the windows are open at night.
Usual occurrences at the 7-11 involve high school aged kids asking me to buy them cigs and beer (and it's only 3.2%!) and the guys you see panhandling off the freeway exit ramp sitting on the retaining wall eating nachos and chain smoking and talking about the life.
Tomorrow I'll post about the story that inspired me to start this blog.
